From 0 to 159 million followers in just one year: Khaby Lame (21) has just lost his factory job when he posts a video on Tiktok. A decision that changed his life: Today he is THE internet star in Italy.
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The first video: This is how it starts...
From the beginning. March 2020. The Corona pandemic is raging with full force in Italy. Lame loses his job in an air filter factory. Money is tight. He moves back into his parents' social housing in the small town of Chiavosso (near Turin). The father has been unemployed for years, the mother a housewife, four brothers.
Photo: Tiktok
Photo: Instagram
Khaby signs up for Tiktok and uploads his first video. An ironic guide on how to use disinfectants. The topic of "lifehacks" is his thing and should help him to break through. Under the hashtag Lifehacks, people present supposed tricks that are supposed to make life sooo easy. Sometimes they do, but often they are nonsense...
Khaby Lame is becoming world famous for videos like these....
>>> More videos of the Tiktok King at the bottom
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...like the video of a girl clumsily taking a backpack off a lantern. Khaby Lame shows how it can be done very easily. The result: 50 MILLION clicks on Tiktok. Lifehack in the Real Check.
When Tiktok explodes...
Lame's second commentary video is viewed 100 million times. In March 2021, he has 2 million followers - and then the rocket really ignites. At times, Lame had growth rates of 10 million per month.
Today he has more than 113 (!!!) million followers on Tiktok, more than 46 (!!!) million on Instagram. He is the most successful Tiktok man (only Charli D'Amelio is better), the most successful influencer in Italy. (Update: In the meantime Khaby Lame is number 1 on Tiktok).
Khaby's videos look homemade and are meant to stay that way. Sometimes the lighting is off, sometimes it's shaky - but that's exactly what's refreshing in the over-perfected social world. The hair always looks the same and people wear what's hanging in their wardrobe.
There are fitness models with bleached teeth who tell you about the manicured horse. And there is Khaby and real life. In the beginning he still commented in Italian, now he just parodies. Always with the "Voilà" hand gesture as the resolution at the end. Always with a broad, slightly silly grin.
Why everyone in Italy is a dottore...
Photo: khabyshop.com
His income today
Ladbible estimates his current fortune at one to two million US dollars. Khaby Lame became a brand in record time. The watermelon cutter from his shop (35.80 euros) is just as sold out as the swimming trunks that change colour when they get wet (51.16 euros). According to Influencer Marketing Hub, a post by Lame on Tiktok is worth up to 20,000 US dollars.
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- Why Bologna is Italy's safest city for pedestrians
He does not need an Italian passport to feel Italian, Lame said in an interview. He was born in Mbackè, Senegal. His family fled with him to Italy when he was one year old. For a better life...
P.S. Update: In the meantime, Khaby Lame has an Italian passport, read more here!
The comedy talent on social media:
>>> When you try to copy supposedly difficult challenges...
>>> A side effect of the star status...
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written by Annie Kayser, first published 23.9.21
Source: own research; Statista.com 2021; @khaby.lame/Tiktok; Khaby Lame; khaby00/Instagram; Selvaggia Lucarelli: "Salvini follows me on TikTok. But I dream of a film with Zalone"/TPI; "A Senegalese is the best Influencer in Italy"/Kurier, Geraldine Oetken: "Khaby Lame - an Influencer without a filter"/RND
